


where your tongue rests (against your teeth)

by growlery



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Birthday Fluff, Domestic, Established Relationship, F/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 09:53:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5581297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/growlery/pseuds/growlery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bellamy doesn't like surprises. Raven knows this about him, knows that waiting builds in him only dread and not anticipation. But Raven also knows that Bellamy is not expecting anything at all, except perhaps to spend a rare shared day off together, and that Bellamy, more than anything else in the world, loves his family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	where your tongue rests (against your teeth)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kwritten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kwritten/gifts).



> a treat for coldneverbothersdragons for the ravenbell secret santa because i absolutely fell in love with this prompt:
> 
>  
> 
> _domestic - taxes, dirty dishes, socks on the floor, losing a job, finding a job, having shitty dead-end jobs, bad tips, worse coworkers, wonderful coworkers they’d lose their job over, Bellamy never makes the bed, Raven is a terrible cook, Octavia is sleeping on their couch again, who said Monty could move in?, too tired for sex, you’re grouchy and sex always fixes it just let me fix it, problems they can’t solve, miscommunication, I made you soup when you got a cold and my soup gave you food poisoning just break up with me this is awful, who forgot to pay the Netflix bill?, deciding between paying for heat or internet, family squabbles, baking at 2am, Bellamy STOP BRINGING CATS HOME, sleeping on the couch after using all the hot water, TAXES, Bellamy comes home to a Nerf gun on the front porch and a note that says ‘Here is your weapon. I have one too. Good luck. xo’, someone starts redecorating and they have a half-painted wall for three years, etc. etc._
> 
>  
> 
> i can never make anything as beautiful and pure as this paragraph, but i hope you like what i did here anyway. title is from as dust dances by biffy clyro.

Bellamy comes in late from his second job at the bar. Raven only knows this because the door slams loud enough to wake her, loud enough that she hears Octavia's blurry voice from the living room say, “Bell?”

“Hey, O,” Raven hears Bellamy say, and then Octavia's grumpy voice, too quiet for her to make out. Then it's Bellamy again, contrite. "I'm sorry. Long fucking day, you know? I'll be quiet."

"You'd better," Raven hears, and then it's just silence. She doesn't have to be able to see it to know that Bellamy is fetching an extra blanket for his sister, scrunching a hand through her hair, kissing the top of her forehead. 

Their bedroom door swings open. Bellamy comes in, soft, but stops when he sees Raven awake. 

"Sorry," he says again. He looks exhausted. He looks like he shouldn't still be able to be vertical, swaying so slightly he probably doesn't realise he's doing it. 

Raven doesn't say anything, just carefully pulls down the blanket. The cold rushes in, anyway. Bellamy crawls into bed as he is, fully dressed except for his coat and shoes. Raven kisses his nose. Bellamy sighs, wraps his arms around her waist like he's trying to burrow into her. 

"Long day, huh?" Raven says, dry, and Bellamy turns his head into her neck and groans. Raven brings her own arms up and around to hug him, stroke fingers down his back. "Wanna talk about it?"

Bellamy's quiet for a second. "You'd help me hide the body if I killed Murphy," he says, "right?"

"I'd dissolve him in acid for you," she says, like this is obvious, because it should be. "This isn't talking about it, Bellamy."

"Like you're so good at it," he says, no real heat to his voice, and Raven's next breath comes out like a sigh. They've had this argument before, and she's all out of fight tonight. 

Bellamy kisses her neck, gentle, apologetic. Raven knows that he means it, and that he didn't mean to snap at her. She squeezes him back, just as gentle, and Bellamy's voice is quiet when he says, "I'm just tired."

"I know," Raven says, and fixing problems is what she does, but she can't find all the broken parts, here, and she has no way to make them work again, if they ever did. "I know."

*

She's awake by seven, just like every other morning. Her alarm going off doesn't wake Bellamy, but her shifting in his arms does. Half-conscious, his grip on her tightens. Raven sighs. 

"Bellamy," she says. He doesn't respond. "Come the fuck on, I've got to get to work."

She could get free without even trying and they both know it, but they haven't been in the apartment at the same time in days. Raven doesn't want her to leave, either. 

"Bellamy," she repeats, softer this time, and Bellamy makes a vague, protesting noise, his breath warm on her skin for just a moment before he rolls away from her, turning his face into the pillow. She pats his shoulder. 

Octavia's sitting at the kitchen table when Raven pushes open the door. She waves, and Raven waves her cane back as she slides into the chair opposite her. There's coffee and toast on the table, and Raven has never minded having Octavia stay with them, exactly, but having company in the mornings makes it all worth it. 

They eat in comfortable silence, O occasionally flipping her phone around to show her funny tumblr posts that Raven quietly snickers at. But then, just as Raven is about to get up, Octavia says, "Oh, hey, what are you getting Bellamy?"

Raven slumps back in her chair. She fucking forgot Bellamy's fucking birthday. She's the worst girlfriend in the world. 

"Uh," she says, scrambling for an idea, trying to improvise, think of something, Raven, and Octavia laughs. 

"Same," she says. "Wanna go half in on something?"

Octavia is broke, because Octavia lost her job and her apartment in quick succession, and Octavia still has textbooks to buy. She's stopped trying to give them money for groceries, because Bellamy always manages to find a way to sneak it back to her. 

They fought about it, once, threw around words like _burden_ and _suffocating_. Bellamy's face was a terrible thing. Raven worried it had broken something irreparable within them, but Octavia was only gone for two days before she turned up on their doorstep with her duffle bag and a lopsided cake she had clearly made herself. Bellamy accepted both with a gruff, “Fucking answer your phone next time, yeah?” and his arms clinging to Octavia's shoulders once he'd put them down. 

“I have a better idea,” Raven says, and when she explains, Octavia's face lights up. 

*

Bellamy's properly awake when Raven comes out of the shower, even though he doesn't need to he up for hours, even though what he really needs is the sleep. His eyes flick up when she comes through the door, going dark when he sees her in just a towel. 

"Don't get any ideas," Raven warns him, and Bellamy says, "Too late," and tugs her down into bed with him. She's not fully dry, yet; she's dripping on the sheets, on Bellamy. He doesn't seem to mind. He kisses her breastbone, her neck, and Raven sighs. 

"I have to leave in twenty minutes," she reminds him. It's not that she doesn't want to stay, but Raven's job pays the rent. They can't afford for her to stay. 

"I can be quick," Bellamy says, and Raven says, "Oh, I know you can," and Bellamy bites down where he'd been grazing his teeth. 

Raven breathes out, harsh, but he's already pulling back, putting space between them. He looks just the slightest bit smug, which won't do at all. Eyes narrowed, Raven drags him in by the collar of his crumpled work shirt, kisses him deep and dirty. He groans into her mouth, hands moving underneath her towel, stroking over her bare belly, down.

"Twenty minutes," Raven breathes. 

He gets her off in five, then does up her brace while she pulls on the rest of her clothes, ties back her hair. She leans down to kiss him while he's kneeling on the ground. His fingers stumble, but never falter, and he murmurs, "There," into her mouth when he's done. 

"Don't jerk off in the shower," Raven tells him, "you'll use up all the hot water again," and Bellamy says, " _One_ time," and Raven strokes fingers over his hair, smiling down at him. 

*

Bellamy doesn't like surprises. Raven knows this about him, knows that waiting builds in him only dread and not anticipation. But Raven also knows that Bellamy is not expecting anything at all, except perhaps to spend a rare shared day off together, and that Bellamy, more than anything else in the world, loves his family. 

It doesn't stop her heart skipping when Bellamy comes out of their room on the afternoon of his birthday, bleary-eyed and messy-haired, to find a room brimming with all the people he loves in the world shouting, “Surprise!”

There's a beat, another, and then Bellamy's face breaks into a grin. “You fucking assholes,” he says, delighted, “how did you do all this without me noticing?”

 _All this_ is an apartment decorated with the handmade paper chains Clarke supervised the making of and Monty's careful arrangements of flowers, with a mixtape of Bellamy's favourite trashy pop songs, courtesy of Echo, playing in the background. While he slept, they pushed everything in the living room to the sides and Monty and Miller dragged over the table from their apartment so they'd have enough space for the food, one dish from everybody invited. The centrepiece is the cake that Wells baked, dripping chocolate, Bellamy's age iced in Roman numerals, that Bellamy laughs at when his gaze lights on it. Raven knew he would love it, but it's still the best thing she's ever seen, how happy he looks. 

It seems like everyone gets to hug him, wish him a _happy birthday you miserable bastard, try and have some fun this year, yeah?_ , before Raven does. She doesn't mind. She's eating some of Maya's stroganoff, talking about cars with Monroe, watching Harper and Fox dance to Britney Spears on the other side of the room. 

Arms come up around her waist, and Bellamy's lips graze her ear. “And I love what you do,” he sings along, scratchy and off key, “don't you know that you're toxic,” and Raven shakes her head, turning in his arms to kiss him. 

“Happy fucking birthday,” she says, so fond her heart aches, and Bellamy beams at her.

**Author's Note:**

> kwritten made a [beautiful graphic](http://coldneverbothersdragons.tumblr.com/post/137544336667/bellamys-voice-is-quiet-when-he-says-im-just) inspired by this!


End file.
